


A Woman's Place

by aramisinaskirt (SilverMillennium_QueenNeptune)



Series: Musketeer March 2021 [11]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Gen, Musketeer March 2021, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-22 14:47:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30040317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMillennium_QueenNeptune/pseuds/aramisinaskirt
Summary: A drabble about Constance's place in the Musketeer family vs. what society expects of her
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), d'Artagnan/Constance Bonacieux
Series: Musketeer March 2021 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2190600
Kudos: 2





	A Woman's Place

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still working to get a couple of prompts for this series up-- those will be backdated, please bear with me. As always, I'm using the prompt found [ here. ](https://privateerstudies.tumblr.com/post/643477557598142464/musketeer-march)

Constance always wondered if there was something more available to her than her life with Bonacieux. She was under no illusions that it would be something grand or adventurous. Such things rarely happened to women. They never happened for a woman of her breeding; those doors were locked and sealed tight. She would never know the trappings of wealth or substance. She had a roof over her head and that was all that mattered.

Before she had met the young Gascon D’Artagnan, her life had been so much simpler. She was married to a man who was kind to her most of the time. He did occasionally treat her like a fool, or belittle her when she spoke out of turn but she had become used to that kind of behavior from him. Her husband had been distant and obsessed with working his way to the top. When she tried to speak out, she was told to “remember a woman’s place”. Constance was so broken that she could barely hold her head up any longer. All of that had changed, when by chance she had met D’Artagnan seeking a way to flee a chase.

He had impulsively kissed her; an action that was done with little regard for what she wanted. She hadn’t had the time or the ability to refuse him. Constance knew how to get away from him, but this man was younger and stronger than Bonacieux and she could not simply shove him off of her. Nor, she found, did she want the kiss to end. It had been so long since a man had given her any real affection at all. Of course, this wasn’t real. This Gascon was a mere boy who barely knew her.

Constance had been wary of him at first, but taking D’Artagnan in had transformed her entire life. The scales had been split between the good and the bad. She had found someone who valued her opinion and cared about her thoughts and desires. He had shown her what it meant to live with little fear and seize what she wanted from her life. Before him, she had been feisty; with him, she was unstoppable and powerful, because he made her feel that any and everything she wanted was within her reach.

Taking d’Artagnan as a lodger had also deepened her bond with the Musketeers. Prior to his arrival, they had trusted her; but now she was almost one of them in her own right. She was one of their confidantes. She learned how to keep secrets and aid them as swiftly as possible. Certainly, there were times when she was in harm’s way. Most of the time, that was due to some complication that none of them had expected; like the instance when they needed her to pretend to be a prostitute. She was now in the company of the most powerful woman in all of France. She stayed in the palace, away from the husband who had tried to make a fool and an example of her. For once in her life when she arrived at the palace she had been needed—truly needed, not just because someone had sent for her, but because the Queen required a confidante that could be trusted. There was a sliver of doubt in her mind; one that told her that she would never get away from her husband no matter how hard she tried. The marriage covenant was meant to end in nothing less than the death of a spouse, likely to be after many years. She did not want to be trapped. Constance had tried to love Bonacieux, but then she had found a new level of affection. D’Artagnan had made her stronger, taught her to be more than a draper’s wife. He had brought her into a whole new world.

She had always counted the Musketeers among the small list of people she could call friends and allies, but that list was growing by the day. Now the Queen was among those numbers. She realized how fortunate she was to be able to call someone in such a high place an ally. The queen had re-defined her entire world. Anne had shown her that a woman did not have to be stuck in the roles of only a wife and mother and nothing more. Constance had become a lady, learning that a woman’s place changed as her positions did. She could only keep rising as high as society would allow her.

Constance’s place, it seemed, was at the Garrison with her friends. As much as she adored Anne, she had needed a respite from the gossiping women and pains of friends who were condemned to die around her. The idea that she needed to find where she truly belonged had frozen her at first— until she realized her best option was to return to the one place she loved and had felt safe. Among the musketeers at the Garrison, she thrived. She had reached a point where she was no longer listening to the voices that told her where “a woman’s place” was. She could make a place for herself where she felt most needed and comfortable. Her friends would always value her determination to mold herself into whatever identity she needed— to show the men that any place could be a woman’s place if the woman was strong enough to take it. They could not wait to see what she would do next.


End file.
